Joseph Stiglitz Was At Occupy Wall Street Yesterday And He Looked Like He Was Having A Great Timehttp://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-stiglitz-was-at-occupy-wall-street-yesterday-and-he-looked-like-he-was-having-a-great-time-2011-10/comments
en-usWed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 10:54:08 -0500Linette Lopezhttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/4ea2fafc69bedd9e71000021John QuindellSat, 22 Oct 2011 13:18:52 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4ea2fafc69bedd9e71000021
I liked also what this guy had to say in Seattle holding up signs like "MONEY IS NOT REALLY REAL" and "THE DECEIVED ARE COMPLICIT IN THEIR DECEPTION". See: signsonthequad.blogspot.cohttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e9c66c1eab8ea5a5900001eReneeMon, 17 Oct 2011 13:32:49 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e9c66c1eab8ea5a5900001e
Oh, Steve...go back to sleep. Maybe you'll come up with some more intelligent feedback.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e9c6638ecad04ea7e00009cReneeMon, 17 Oct 2011 13:30:32 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e9c6638ecad04ea7e00009c
While participating in the call and repeat, I could not help but think of Life of Brian, too. But that's just a funny, not incredible. Do I need to explain to you the purpose of the call and repeat? OK. It's because bullhorns, public address systems and the like, are not permitted. This was just a method of allowing a large number of people to hear the words of one person without amplification, which, as I pointed out, was not permitted.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8f2496eab8ea2751000037MegFri, 07 Oct 2011 12:11:02 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8f2496eab8ea2751000037
Here's a transcript, courtesy of BWOG: <a href="http://bwog.com/2011/10/03/stiglitz-speaks-at-occupy-wall-street/" target="_blank">http://bwog.com/2011/10/03/stiglitz-speaks-at-occupy-wall-street/</a>
Joseph Stiglitz:
Before talking about economics, I want to say something about democracy. In July, I was in Spain, talking to the “indignados” there, the protesters. There, I could use a bullhorn. I didn’t have to go through this echo chamber. I realize the pedagogy of having you repeat what I say is very valuable, but it makes the whole process much longer. The fact that you are not allowed to use a megaphone on a Sunday is outrageous! We have too many regulations stopping democracy and not enough regulations stopping Wall Street from misbehaving. You should have the right peacefully and demonstrate your views and not be arrested and not be sprayed with pepper spray.
So now I want to talk a little bit about what I said in Spain, and then about the banks. The protests there are called the “indignados,” and I said, “You are right to be indignant.” The fact is, the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people.
Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital and manage risk, but they’ve misallocated capital and created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism! That’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society.
Jeff Madrick:
To make it a little more clear how Wall Street was allowed to take all that risk, the bankers were able to take home their bonuses every year by developing risky strategies that one day had to go bad. They knew, however, they would take out their money before most of those investments went bad. Economists call this “asymmetric incentives.” You make money by taking risk, but nobody takes it away from you when the strategies don’t work and lose lots of money. That was one of the core problems with Wall Street. Could Washington have done something about that? Yes! There were other problems. I’ve got to throw it to Joe to talk about other problems.
Stiglitz:
One of the things the banks did was to prey on the poorest Americans [through predatory lending. We knew about it. There were some people who tried to stop it, but they used their political power, [that is] Wall Street used its political power, to stop those who would stop them.
Madrick:
Just to keep going on this, the FBI actually told the powers that be that there was an epidemic of fraud in 2004 in the mortgage market. Washington and the Federal Reserve had the power to do something about that. They did not. The more bad mortgages went on, the predatory lending got worse, and the powers that be—in particular and let me name names, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve—was able to retire in glory. Is there something with this picture? There sure is, and there are a lot of other areas we can discuss.
Stiglitz:
Two more things. After the bubble broke, they continued in their way of disobeying the law, in a sense—throwing people out of their houses, even in some cases when they didn’t owe money. The balance of rights has been distorted. We bailed out the banks with an understanding that there would be a restoration of lending. All there was was a restoration of bonuses! Unless we deal with the anti-competitive practices, with the reckless lending and speculative behavior, with the anti-competitive practices, unless we restore finance to the function it should serve, we won’t have a robust recovery.
Madrick:
One last point. There had been few civil suits by the federal government. Even when they make them, they settle. There may be some hope somebody’s lighting a fire under prosecutors and attorneys general. Not all on Wall Street broke the law, but it is hard to believe that some didn’t, and it’s important so that all of us can understand that not all that happened was simply well-meaning gigantic errors. By prosecuting where there was serious unethical practices, we may provide another deterrent. Unethical practices were a major contributor, in my view, to the crisis we had and the difficult future we face.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8e6e3aeab8eac37900002cSnoozin SteveThu, 06 Oct 2011 23:12:58 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8e6e3aeab8eac37900002c
This protest is so stupid. Read a funny piece at: <a href="http://ihaveoptions.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://ihaveoptions.blogspot.com/</a>
Lets stop, and everyone should get a damn job, or spend time studying.
Also, this is not like the Vietnam war. Totally different.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8b8d7d6bb3f7b36500003dJBTue, 04 Oct 2011 18:49:33 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8b8d7d6bb3f7b36500003d
KF's comment is unintelligent on so many levels ... Like socialist Francis Bellamy who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and championed the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, these folks believe in the principles on which the U.S. was founded ... and quite unlike people like KF who worship Russian psychopath Ayn Rand and her amoral philosophy of self aggrandizement.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8b7cee6bb3f7e24e000035cherrytreecigTue, 04 Oct 2011 17:38:54 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8b7cee6bb3f7e24e000035
A socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a75396bb3f7c268000022outtahereMon, 03 Oct 2011 22:53:45 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a75396bb3f7c268000022
I personally think it's cool he went down to give a tutorial.
(note that there's a typo in the short bio of Stiglitz -- should be "renowned" economist)http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a6e8c69bedd722100001eJCMon, 03 Oct 2011 22:25:16 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a6e8c69bedd722100001e
*face palm*
Because no Socialist would ever recite the Pledge, right?
Try looking up who wrote the Pledge some time.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a35eaeab8eab44d000040pancimeMon, 03 Oct 2011 18:23:38 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a35eaeab8eab44d000040
Say after me: 'We are free thinkers.' (see Life of Brian) Incredible!http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a0302eab8eaba7b00001eKRMon, 03 Oct 2011 14:46:26 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a0302eab8eaba7b00001e
Stiglitz is such a joker. Just 1.5 yrs ago was saying that Greece would have no trouble paying its interest on loans b/c rates are so low. Greece's yields at that time on 2-yr bonds was 7%. Now they're trading for 130%+
Just another ignorant academic that's completely full of himself in spite of making mistake after mistake.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a0038ecad048b1b000038LeviathanMon, 03 Oct 2011 14:34:32 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e8a0038ecad048b1b000038
I'm glad to see big guns like Stiglitz adding to the fray. These kids deserve credit for finally getting the conversation started. On the other hand, their naive identification of the country's problem as "corporate greed" threatens to derail their project before it can get off the ground.
Listen to Stiglitz, kids. The problem is CRONY CAPITALISM, not capitalism (or "greed" or "corporations").
CRONY CAPITALISM. It's really quite simple.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e89f7aa69beddc934000042KFMon, 03 Oct 2011 13:58:02 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/4e89f7aa69beddc934000042
Someone should go out there and trick the protesters into repeating the pledge to the flag. They will repeat anything without seeming to think about it! It would blow their little socialist minds...